Social psychology

• AGENCY THEORY- MILGRAM
• agency theory: what are the two different states

  autonomous state

  agentic state
• agency theory: what is the autonomous state?


  perceive ourselves to be responsible for our own behaviour

  feel guilt

  have free will
• agency theory: what is the agent state?

  displace responsibility to authority figure

  don't feel guilt

  may feel moral strain
• agency theory: what is the process of moving between the two

  agent shift
• agency theory: what did milligram say the defence mechanisms were?


  denial

  avoidance

  degree of involvement

  helping the learner
• evaluation of agency theory: what is supporting evidence?

  - his own study

  - found that 100% of pps went to 300v

  - 65% of pps went up to 450v

  shows that people will carry out orders from an authority figure commanding them
• evaluation of agency theory: what is conflicting evidence?


  - rank and Jacobsen

  - found that 16/18 pps administered failed to overdose a patient when told to on the phone

  - this suggests that the majority would have remained in the autonomous state and not shifted to the agent state

  - individual differences are not considered by milgrams theory
• evaluation of agency theory: what is more supporting evidence?


  - Hoffling

  - asked by doctor to overdose patients with 10 extra mg of the drug

  - 21/22 patients followed the order showing they shifted into the agentic state

  - shows people are willing to follow authority commands even though it could be morally straining
• evaluation of agency theory: what is more conflicting evidence?


  - Jonestown massacre

  - theory doesn't explain why some authority figures have higher command than other authority figures

  - average man managed to get 900 people to poison themselves

  - didn't have any legitimate authority which is what mailgram says you need to shift to the agentic state
• evaluation of agency theory: is it useful?


  can be used to explain social situations in settings such as a child obeying a teacher or a child obeying their parents
• MILGRAMS VARIATIONS
• experiment 5/ new baseline: what was the aim of the study?

  to test situational factors which may affect obedience
• experiment 5/ new baseline: what was the procedure?


  same as the original

  moved it to a basement lab

  the learner complained he had a mild heart condition

  the learners responses were pre recorded
• experiment 5/ new baseline: what were the results?

  exactly the same as the original

  65% obedience up to 450v
• experiment 5/ new baseline: what were the conclusions?

  changing the situation doesn't have an influence on obedience
• experiment 10/ rundown office block: what was the aim?

  to test the effect of setting which may influence obedience

  - many of the pps said the university setting led them to trust the experimenter
• experiment 10/ rundown office block: what was the procedure?


  pps were recruited via volunteer sampling

  asked to come to a run down office block in Bridgeport

  pps were told the experiment was run by a private firm
• experiment 10/ rundown office block: what were the results?

  47.5% of pps were fully obedient

  - interview transcripts say the pps voiced doubts about legitimacy of place
• experiment 10/ rundown office block: what are the conclusions?


  context is an important situational factor that affects the level of obedience

  shabby setting reduced the legitimacy of the researcher
• experiment 7/ telephonic instructions: what was the aim?


  to test the effect of the experimenter being absent to see if it would effect obedience
• experiment 7/ telephonic instructions: what was the procedure?


  experimenter gave orders over the phone

  same as other procedures
• experiment 7/ telephonic instructions: what were the results?


  9/40 of the pps were fully obedient

  pps lied saying they raised the shock voltage

  when the researcher came back in they were obedient again
• experiment 7/ telephonic instructions: what were the conclusions?


  pps find it easier to resist authority in a passive way

  physical presence of an authority figure is an important situational factor as it increases obedience and decreases dissent
• experiment 13/ ordinary man: what was the aim?


  to test the effect of strength of authority figure

  and determine if obedience was due to the strength of the command or the status of the person giving the order
• experiment 13/ ordinary man: what was the procedure?


  40 males

  pps arrive with 2 confederates

  experimenter receives fake phone call calling him away

  fake confederates asks them to administer the shocks
• experiment 13/ ordinary man: what were the results?


  80% of pps refused to continue when an 'ordinary man' gave orders
• experiment 13/ ordinary man: what were the conclusions?

  orders must come from legitimate authority to be effective
• SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY- BIBB LATANÉ
• social impact theory: what is it?


  a theory that relates to processes that influence people in social settings
• social impact theory: what is the definition of source and targets?


  source - person giving orders

  target - person receiving order
• social impact theory: what is the equation?


  I = F(SIN)

  IMPACT ON TARGET = FUNCTION OF STRENGTH X IMMEDIACY X NUMBERS
• social impact theory: what does strength mean?

  authority of source, power
• social impact theory: what does immediacy mean?

  closeness of the target in terms of distance
• social impact theory: what does numbers mean?


  how many sources are present during the interaction

  as the number increases, so does the impact but at a decreasing rate
• social impact theory: what Is the multiplacitive effect?


  light bulb analogy

  as strength, immediacy and numbers of lightbulbs increases, so does the impact it has on the target
• social impact theory: what is the divisional effect?


  social impact is reduced if there are more targets than sources
• social impact theory: what is the law of deminishing returns?


  as the number increases beyond a certain point, the impact decreases

  for example, the more times you say 'I love you', the less it has an impact on the target
• evaluation of social impact theory: supporting evidence?


  sedikies and jackson zoo study

  - new york zoo visitors were asked not to lean on railing

  STRENGTH: 58% obedience if in zookeeper outfit

  35% obedience in ordinary clothes

  IMMEDIACY: 61% obedience in same room

  7% obedience in adjacent room

  NUMBERS: 60% obedience in smaller group

  14% obedience in larger group
• evaluation of social impact theory: what is conflicting evidence?


  hoffling

  - arranged unknown doctor to phone 22 nurses and asked them to administer overdose of drug

  21/22 nurses administered the overdose

  - there was little immediacy

  - shows the importance of strength on its own